WASHINGTON, D.C. — Corey Lewandowski told GEO Group founder George Zoley during the presidential transition between November 2024 and January 2025 that he wanted to be paid in exchange for protecting and expanding the company's Department of Homeland Security contracts. Zoley declined Lewandowski's payment request.

The confrontation occurred as Lewandowski served as an unpaid special government employee and de facto chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The GEO Group held federal contracts for transporting, detaining, monitoring and deporting undocumented immigrants totaling more than $1 billion per year.

Zoley secured a follow-up meeting with Lewandowski in late February or early March 2025. At that meeting, Zoley offered Lewandowski a recurring consulting fee on retainer with the GEO Group, but Lewandowski said he wanted to be compensated based on GEO Group's new or renewed contracts with the Department of Homeland Security. "He wanted payments — what some people would call a success fee."

In the months after the follow-up meeting, the length of two of GEO Group's federal contracts was reduced. Several GEO Group facilities capable of housing migrants sat idle during this period, even as Congress and President Donald Trump provided additional funding to the Department of Homeland Security to execute the mass deportation campaign.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official said that within weeks of the follow-up meeting, Lewandowski told him not to award more contracts to the GEO Group. Lewandowski denied telling Department of Homeland Security officials to halt further contract awards to the company. In December 2025, the GEO Group received a $121 million contract for services to help locate immigrants that the Department of Homeland Security is trying to find.

"This is absolutely false and did not happen — Mr. Lewandowski never demanded any payment or compensation from the Geo Group, at any time," a spokesperson said. Lewandowski added: "Zero, not one penny."

A senior White House official said they received approximately a dozen complaints from at least four companies about Lewandowski's involvement in Department of Homeland Security contracting during the second Trump administration.

Noem testified at a congressional hearing in March 2026 during which lawmakers questioned her and Lewandowski's roles in government contract decisions. President Trump called Noem and Lewandowski after the congressional hearings and questioned Lewandowski about his role in Department of Homeland Security contracting decisions. Trump fired Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security and said she would depart on March 31, 2026.

President Trump nominated Senator Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, to replace Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security.